Realization: my adaptation to being partially deaf is to listen for "out of place" or distinctive sounds and syllables, the ones that stand out. These give me cues that help identify words. This also explains how I sometimes can hear the fall of a coin!

I had many dreams this morning, but there was one with a thread, and that is the one I remember most clearly. There were three sisters: the eldest was red, the middle quite dark, and the youngest was fair of hue. They were a "nothing" and a "beyond" at the same time, and could change the scale of their being at will. All of them wore cages suspended from a length of chain 'round their neck. The first two had humans in theirs, but the third was not old enough for such a responsibility, and hers contained an effigy and an insect.

The Red was amongst humans one day, her form distinguished her not. We do not know why she was there, but she saw him, a man square of jaw and direct of gaze. The connection had such power over her that she walked from the encounter in a daze.

That brief moment marked the beginning of increasing cruelty against her sisters. She humiliated The Dark by stringing her up, clad only in her underclothing, and displaying her for all to see. The Red walked the tiled hallways of a school, seeking the youngest. The Light was in conversation with companions, and their subject was men. What happens when one meets a man? One leaves this place. Why is that? Why would you want to stay? Righteously offended, The Red insisted that it was "time to remain in childhood," and she refused to let her sibling escape her institutional tomb. The Light was smothered.

Though she took out her confusion on those closest to her, she could not forget him, and that chance glance that had captivated her kinder sides. The Red took to the skies in search of him, but he could not be found. Feeling more frustration, she persuaded her sisters (through means unknown) to transform with her. As three shimmering circles, they plagued the local populace. But such disguises are, of course, often closer to the truth than one wishes to admit. Their guilt was quickly established.

Three humans were selected to face them on a dirt floor, the intention being that each sister would face one of their victims, and subsequently fight to deny guilt, or apologize to admit it and repair the wounds they caused. The Red held three cards in front of her. Though they were turned face down, she knew that the left was The Light, and the right was The Dark.

How her body thrummed when she realized that the one who had taken the middle card representing her was him!